‘This is Maressa, an air mage from Kedara Circle, and this is Elyssa from Parima Circle.’
Nolli and Ryla extended their hands to both women, exclaiming in delight and giving no indication of having noticed Elyssa’s silvered eyes. Nolli held onto Elyssa’s hand with her own twisted one, drawing her down to sit on the pillows heaped around her chair.
‘Do you know Jilla and Bagri?’ she asked the girl. ‘Oh but of course you must. Shan has dragged them off again today – she says we ask them too many questions.’
A small creature with brown fur marked with black smudges sat up on Nolli’s lap. His brilliant green eyes regarded Elyssa over a moustache he had yet to grow into. He chirruped softly and jumped from Nolli to Elyssa. Kneading his front feet against her arm, he began a throaty crooning.
‘There. I knew we would all be friends at once,’ Nolli crowed. ‘See how Resh approves of you so quickly.’
Nolli stretched her other hand towards Maressa. ‘My dear, you are the unfortunate air mage with whom Fenj touched minds? I am amazed you look so well after such a shock.’
Maressa sank onto some pillows beside Elyssa, aware that this tiny old woman had tremendous power within her. She glanced at Elyssa and saw the girl relaxed and at ease under the old one’s easy chatter. As Nolli continued to fuss over Elyssa, Maressa studied Ryla.
She must once have been taller even than Emla or Kera, but Emla had told them that neither Ryla nor Nolli could stand now, let alone walk. Ryla still held herself straight in her chair but she was so thin, so fragile, so faded, except for the dark eyes still bright and full of intelligence and curiosity. Maressa looked back to Nolli: a tiny creature, toothless and with hands twisted and gnarled with the joint disease. But in her eyes too Maressa saw a vast intelligence, wisdom and humour.
As always, Nolli’s maid and friend Lanni had hurried away to fetch food and drink for the visitors. Now she returned with two of Emla’s maids as Emla opened her satchel and handed documents to Ryla, talking all the while. Emla stopped in mid sentence as feet pounded up the outer steps. She was smiling as she turned to the door.
A breathless Shan flew into the hall, skidding to a stop before her Lady. She attempted to offer a correct salute but Emla merely hugged her tight. Shan’s arms whipped round Emla’s waist and she squeezed until Emla laughingly made her loosen her hold. Ryla sniffed loudly.
‘Perhaps Shan will be a little kinder to her elders now you are home Emla.’
Elyssa looked quickly at the old Senior in dismay. Then she saw the twinkle in her eyes, the twitch at her lips, and realised she was teasing Shan.
‘And did you just abandon our other guests when you heard that Lady Emla had returned?’ Ryla continued.
Shan looked guilty but a voice called from the door in her defence.
‘Of course she didn’t! We told her to run ahead of us.’ Bagri and Jilla entered, laughing with delight as they saw Elyssa and Maressa at Nolli’s side.
Emla unfolded the maps Thryssa had given her and Ryla searched a pile of books beside her for a map to compare with Thryssa’s. Shan was sent in search of Khalim, Ryla’s assistant, one of the few People who had travelled as far as Sapphrea. Soran was dispatched to find a board and easel such as was used for instructing classes for the Guards. Eventually the two maps were pinned, one above the other, and everyone studied them carefully.
‘That circle there,’ Bagri pointed to a mark south of Return. ‘That is the one that Rhaki must have used I would guess.’
‘There is another here,’ Elyssa rose and pointed to a spot west of the place Bagri had indicated.
Soran stared from map to map. ‘I would estimate that circle is closer to Tagria.’
Thryssa’s maps were of lands that her people had not seen in fifteen hundred cycles or more, and Tagria was not marked on her map, although a circle unmistakably was. Ryla and Emla noted the cities shown: four on the coast of Sapphrea and two inland, one away to the south and one above the present Tagria, near the Ancient Mountains. There were other cities too, not just in Sapphrea. Gaharn was shown on Thryssa’s map although oddly, no names had been put to any features, including the cities. Nolli’s misshapen hand rested on Maressa’s shoulder.
‘Were all your cities destroyed in one catastrophe child?’
Maressa frowned. ‘No, only the ones on the coast itself.’ She pointed to the ones she meant. ‘Our name for these lands was Valsheba. The other cities were abandoned when the people living around them attacked them. Few of our people escaped: they were hunted down and killed, the cities pulled down block by block and then pounded to dust.’ She glanced up at Nolli.
‘I can understand in one way, I think. Our records are not entirely accurate but there are reports of that time. Several fire mages were working on a project of which they lost control. Their carelessness, their mistakes, caused massive explosions deep into the ground. They set off natural explosions of the volcanic kind. The earth shook, the cities fell and some sort of blight covered a very great deal of the land.’
She spread her hands. ‘Many Sapphreans died, not just the mage bloods. Livestock, farmlands – all were ruined, if not by the explosions then by the blight.’
‘From what I have read,’ Jilla put in. ‘The blight lasted many cycles, and the land was utterly poisoned.’
‘Like the Wilderness,’ Ryla mused.
‘Anyway,’ Maressa concluded. ‘The non mage bloods were right to blame our people for the ruination of their lands and their lives. While I can never condone or forgive their consequent slaughter of anyone they believed to carry mage blood, I do understand the despair and the hatred and the fear which must have driven them to it.’
‘Lord Kemti and Lord Gan both reported no rumours of any circles other than the one near to Return itself. How do we know these others have not been destroyed – hammered to pieces by the locals cycles ago?’ Soran asked.
Elyssa bit her lip. ‘Thryssa told me there is a way to “feel” if a circle is still in place and functioning, and these do still exist.’ The silvered eyes flickered round the group. ‘There is also a way of moving without using a circle.’
Emla sat up. ‘How?’ she demanded.
Elyssa shook her head. ‘It is very risky. Thryssa has told Maressa and I, but she begged that we only do so if we are in truly desperate need.’
‘Can we ask a Merig to take news to Lord Kemti and Lady Tika of this circle near Tagria?’ Khalim was still studying the maps. ‘Tagria is only a day or so distant from Return. But our people should be there if anyone is going to travel through the circles. The Tagrians may not appreciate strangers appearing in their midst in that fashion.’
‘But what if the circle is buried – under soil, under rock, under a building?’ Ryla asked.
‘I can tell if it is,’ Elyssa replied softly. May I go to the Pavilion again – I have to be on a circle to test if another is in place and able to be used safely.’
Emla nodded. ‘Go with her Shan, and guard her as you would me.’
Shan looked from Emla to Elyssa and back. She smiled as she got to her feet, holding a hand out to tug Elyssa up.
‘Is there a Merig in the area?’ Emla asked.
Soran laughed. ‘There is always at least one of late, sitting outside your library window.’
‘I trust no one leaves the windows open,’ Emla said in mock alarm. ‘A lady Merig once showed great interest in nest making in there.’ Her smile faded as she remembered Iska laughing at the female Merig’s determined efforts to clear a high shelf of its precious books.
‘How long does it take a Merig to relay a message to Return?’ asked Bagri.
‘Usually four days,’ Nolli answered him.
‘Then we should tell them to be prepared for us to reach that circle in – what? – six days from now? Will that be enough time?’
Emla nodded. ‘Us?’ she asked, an eyebrow rising.
Bagri grinned. ‘It is no secret that I have long wanted to see what lay outside Vagran
tia’s encircling walls. If I may, I beg to be among the party that goes to Sapphrea?’
Before Emla could reply, a Merig strutted stiff legged into the hall, feathers glossy and sleek. He hopped onto a stool, keeping an eye on Resh who sat on Nolli’s knees once more. Emla used mind speech to him.
‘Greetings Merig. I would ask you to relay a message to Return.’
‘Greetings Lady. I will be glad to do so.’
‘May I first say how very handsome you look?’
The Merig clattered his beak. ‘You may indeed say so Lady. It is the marrying season you understand – we have to look our best.’
Nolli hid her face in Resh’s furry back while Ryla’s face became sterner than ever in an effort to hide her glee. Elyssa and Shan came back to the hall before Emla had finished telling her message to the Merig. At Elyssa’s nod she added:
‘You are to tell them that we will be near Tagria six days from today, in the early morning.’
The Merig hopped off the stool and strutted from the hall.
Nolli gasped. ‘We have to look our best,’ she chortled.
Ryla spluttered with merriment and Emla shook her head over the pair of them.
‘It feels as if you have been home for days already my Lady, but you have only just arrived. Should I not show Maressa and Elyssa to their rooms?’
‘You must do so at once, Shan dear. My manners get worse by the day.’ Emla stopped.
A Merig strutted across the floor towards her. For a moment she thought it was the one which had just departed, then she saw this one was dusty and dishevelled rather than sleek and glossy.
‘I bring a message from the Lord Kemti in Return,’ the Merig began. He squawked as Resh leapt suddenly from Nolli’s lap. Taking refuge on the mantelshelf the Merig gave a harsh croak of disgust.
‘I do apologise for the Kephi, Merig. Please continue,’ Nolli urged.
The Merig muttered for a while then straightened himself again.
‘We are in Hargon’s compound. Rhaki is not near by. He killed the Delver Serim and is now using the Delver’s body for himself. Hargon’s eldest son died in an accident. His younger son has vanished: we fear he is now with Rhaki. We are all well although Tika’s eyes have become silver.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ren awoke in his tiny cell-like room and stretched. The last few days had turned his world upside down. Talking to Chakar and Babach, sometimes together, sometimes separately, certain things had fallen into place. It felt rather as though he had spent his previous years trying to put together a puzzle, several parts of which had been missing. Chakar had supplied him with many of those pieces and he finally realised how blinkered he had allowed himself to become.
When he felt he could absorb no more information for a while, he took a lantern and explored the caves in which he found himself. Several chambers were packed with books and scrolls, others held objects whose function was a complete mystery to him. He touched neither books nor objects on his first explorations, promising himself he would discover the extent of the caves before treating himself to the pleasure old books always offered.
Some chambers had fuel stacked floor to roof, another was stuffed with food supplies: vegetables, grains, nuts, dried fruits and fish, pungent onions. After three days of intermittent wanderings, he decided the caves must surely continue forever, and gave up his quest for the end of them.
Chakar had told them that he and Voron were entirely safe while they stayed below ground. She told him: ‘The rock itself acts as a shield, although I add a small amount of my own shielding. That is really so that I would know if anything or anyone had tried to enter.’
Another day, Chakar had led the pair through the passages, telling them to remember the turns she took as they went along. They turned yet another corner and found themselves outside, on a broad ledge. Above them, the cliff jutted out and up, while below, far too far below in Ren’s private opinion, water crashed and foamed over a black pebbled shore.
‘This opening is just if you need some air, or want to enjoy the view.’ Chakar grinned as Ren involuntarily stepped further back from the edge. ‘Come along.’
And she trotted ahead of them up a sloping passage, through twists and turns, until once more they were in the open. She showed the two men a narrow step half hidden on the left of this opening and explained that, with great care, they could reach the shore down the pathway. Ren stared at the path, the beach, and finally at Chakar. She laughed aloud.
‘Well, perhaps you wouldn’t care to try it Ren. Let me show you one more exit today.’
Ren paused long enough to stare again in disbelief at the vertical drop that Chakar blithely and misguidedly called a path, and followed the Observer and Voron back inside the cliff. The last exit was met with more approval: for one thing it faced inland – no sign of all that heaving water. They had to crouch, then crawl on hands and knees before squeezing between an enormous chunk of split rock. Chakar pointed.
‘Those trees are your mark. Once there, turn left and you will see one solitary boulder. Make for the boulder and the town is directly below.’
Ren did not much like the sound of “below”, remembering the steep switchback climb he and Voron had made when they arrived, but he said nothing. At least there did not appear to be any vertigo-inducing sheer drops from this side as far as he could see.
Babach spent more time with Voron than with Ren. He instructed the Aspirant in much the same way as he would have, had they still been at the Menedula. Chakar instructed Ren in the ways of the Oblaka and, more specifically, in the Order of Myata. Almost at once, Ren realised that Myata’s teachings differed only subtly from Sedka’s, but enough to lead to widely divergent conclusions.
Now Ren yawned hugely and swung his legs over the side of the bed. The temperature seemed always constant within this underground complex – Ren had yet to ask Chakar why that should be. Going along the passage, he entered the washing cave as he called it to himself. Water entered continuously from a pipe protruding from the inner wall, poured into a basin, then into a deeper trough, large enough to bathe in. Finally the water disappeared through another hole which, Ren assumed, led to the outer cliff face. The water was always warm, not as hot as Ren preferred for a long soaking bath, but pleasant enough.
Entering the main room, he found Voron already eating breakfast. A pan of oatmeal was keeping hot by the side of the fire and a pot of tea was on the table at Voron’s elbow. Ren filled a dish with the porridge, sprinkled some dried berries over it, and joined Voron at the table.
‘We’ve slept much later today,’ Voron told him. The Aspirant found being constantly below ground a little harder to deal with than Ren did. First thing when he woke therefore, Voron went along to the viewing ledge where he sat for a while, watching the endlessly changing sky and sea.
Ren raised an eyebrow, his mouth full.
‘The sun is nearly half way to midday, but no one has come down to us,’ Voron explained. There was a trace of concern in his tone.
Ren swallowed and poured himself a bowl of tea. ‘Perhaps they have duties in the Oblaka – they may have to take classes or something.’
‘They would have told us.’ Voron frowned. ‘Ren, I believe I will stay here now, no matter what happens. It feels right to me somehow.’
Before Ren could reply, the door to the tiny cellar swung open and Babach entered. He carried a scroll tube and excitement exuded from him.
‘What has happened?’ Voron asked at once.
‘Chakar’s great bird returned earlier. He reached the Night Lands!’ Babach beamed triumphantly, tapping the scroll case. ‘He found intelligent beings and they have sent replies to my messages. Clear the table, we will examine them thoroughly.’
‘Shouldn’t Chakar be here too?’ Voron asked.
‘She is still with Baryet. He spoke with the people he found and Chakar needs to get every scrap of information from him as soon as she can. His memory is not as good as one would wish, so
she decided to work with him immediately.’
‘How long has it taken him to fly so far?’ Voron cleared dishes from the table as Babach had ordered.
‘Five days. He says he flew faster than he would usually. Plavats generally glide with the winds but Baryet had to fly against the air currents at times on both journeys.’
Babach tilted the tube and rolls of parchment slid onto the table. For a moment, all three of them stared in silence at this proof of existence of the Night Lands and of intelligent beings living there. Babach gave a sigh of anticipation and unwound the first scroll.
When Chakar joined them much later in the day, she found the three men buzzing with excitement. The very air in the room seemed to crackle with it. Sava perched on her shoulder, hooting unhappily. He did not approve at all of Chakar’s association with a Plavat.
Chakar sat curled in her usual armchair and gave them the vivid pictures she had extracted from Baryet’s memories. They sat, silenced by the first image of an enormous black Dragon standing upright, great wings extended to the sides, prismed eyes flashing. Then, an incredibly tall thin woman stood before them. They heard her greeting, understanding her words without too much difficulty. She was interrupted by a small furry creature who then scrambled up to the top of the Dragon’s head. The three men watching the scenes transferred to their minds by Chakar, stiffened as a slim boy came into view. Babach’s gasp sounded loud when the boy’s scales became clearly visible.
‘Look what he wears,’ Chakar murmured softly.
The egg pendant was just discernible between the laces of the boy’s jerkin. The pictures vanished.
‘No,’ Chakar admitted. ‘That is far from all I can show you, but I desperately need some tea.’
Voron leapt to the hearth to comply with the Observer’s wishes.
‘The old gods did not spend all their time watching our lands alone,’ Babach said, tugging his beard braids.
‘So it would appear,’ Chakar agreed. ‘And the affliction has begun, in one part of their lands at least.’
Vagrants: Book 2 Circles of Light series Page 35